Happy Summer! My hope and prayer is that all of you are experiencing a great summer. Many of you are vacationing, getting your boats out, motorcycles tuned up, kayaks in the water and bikes on the towpath! I hope that whatever you like to do during the summer, you are finally able to do it. One thing I have been doing weekly is our Parish Golf League on Tuesday nights. While I have been playing golf for some 25 years now, I can’t say I have never been on a golf league until now. Most of my life I rush onto the golf course and speedily play a round with my friends. The golf league offers a different scenario. Because it is fairly packed on the golf course, this kind of golf has invited me to slow down and not rush the game – to take a deep breath and stop to smell the flowers. It has been good for the soul. If the past year has been a rush for you, or you have been non-stop, perhaps you can make it your goal to slow down a little in the month of July and stop to take in what God wants to offer you—his beauty, rest and re-creation.
Speaking of re-creation, while summer is a time for relaxing, etc. it is also a time for summer projects. Even though we just completed the Memorare Center Project in May, there are a number of projects going on this summer. One project that you will notice the most is the replacement of the two front doors in the Church. As you know, the church building is 50 years old and this year the doors have begun to fail in different ways. Thanks to our Building and Grounds group for discussing and praying about the best way to go about replacing them. We are going with a door unit that offers a window above in order to let more light into the gathering area. This project will begin this week.
You may also have noticed that some stained glass windows have been missing in the entry way and on the church walls. One of the last things Fr. Bline did was purchase a couple stained glass windows for the main church walls that will add to the number of saints we hold important in our lives. St. John Marie Vianney and St. Jane Frances de Chantal will be on our new stained glass windows. The stained glass company is working on it and will finish this year. The other stained glass windows in the gathering area were removed to help us study the lighting needs for our gathering area. Hopefully replacing the doors with windows above will help solve our lighting needs.
The last major project this summer is happening at our school. Due to the kindness and generosity of our parish, our car raffle was a huge success and helped us raise over 50K! This money will be used to better secure the campus. One major way we are doing this is by moving the school offices to the current library which will make sure all visitors will be met before entering the school building itself. This will create a safer environment for our children. It will also free up our current school office to be used for our special education teachers.
Thank you so much for your support over the years. Most importantly, I ask for your prayers to make sure all of these projects run smoothly and be completed in a timely manner.
May God’s peace and joy be with you,
Fr. Jeremy
